It occurred to me during my drive out to the barn this weekend, that I have too many "to-dos" and not nearly enough time. I've planned my entire summer around doing EVERYTHING and as the weather starts to warm (...well, it's supposed to anyway...) I suddenly feel panicked that none of it's going to happen!
It's a terrible combination that I think we all experience: time meets dreams meets goals meets reality meets funding.
With all of the entry forms starting to roll out online, I scribbled down every event on my calendar at home. Then sat back and looked at it, mouth agap. The BF just snorted and rolled his eyes. And said "If you showed that to Moon, what would HE do?". We both know he'd eat it and that would be the end of that.
Really, how do you prioritize??! When you're green, new and everything is exciting and wonderful?!
With my frustration over canter, I currently don't see training level until the September competition. I *think* I'll be able to make ONE day of the May Dressage show, BUT that means I'll probably miss out watching one AMAZING event that will never come around again in my lifetime.
And do I do the practice ride Friday night and one or two classes on Saturday?? Where is the money better spent, since we're so new to this we're likely to be a bundle of nerves?? And only have one day to enjoy?
There's two fun shows I want to attend, but one (SIRAS) overlaps with the Eventing Clinic. So these are at a stalemate. I suspect I might have more fun at SIRAS since my confidence of our jumping ability of logs is stunted at the moment. But who knows how I'll feel come springtime and a couple good rides through the park??
There's one more fun show that I could incorporate horse-camping with the BF into. But there's only two classes I'd even consider entering and really am not that interested overall...
Then my new dilemma. If work-trip gets the golden approval, I could extend my stay. At first, I figured I'd take a day or two to just check out the city, but I got carried away on Google last night and had "a moment".
...I could set-up one of those "weekend riding adventures". You know, where you pack out for hours on end in a strange location, galloping widely across the land? The options are AMAZING and while the price is ASTRONOMICAL, I wonder if I'll ever have the chance again? Has anyone ever done one of these and thought "Wow, I'm glad I did that!"?
The logical part of me says I have horse fencing and wells to pay for this year, and this is just "wasting money". But how many times do you travel to London, England, all-expenses paid?? Whoops, just spilled the beans...
Technically, it's a part of my job (the great debate last Friday, of whether I'd be going to Vegas or London and what my job ACTUALLY is). London is part of my job, and now I just need the Associate Deputy Minister to agree. Granted, he said yes to the same job which took me to Mexico City last winter, so how much of a stretch is this one? And two yeses opens the door to the remaining G5 countries...so maybe this ISN'T my only chance...
So I'm looking at my calendar, my pocketbook and my dreams. And Moon, who'd be happy doing nothing but gallops across the park all summer. : P
Sunday I also realized that as much as I want to be making steady progress each week, we're struggling. I suspect it's because the lessons are harder now and take longer to physically and mentally adjust to. Getting three rides in between lessons is NOT enough time for me to feel like we practiced anything. He usually gets one ride where we just bicker, one ride where we have fun and don't care about form or function and that leaves one ride where we actually do work.
Staring, staring, staring at my calendar, I'm going to drop down to lessons with W every second week. That means 3 days of TRUE practice between lessons, so we can actually make some progress. We'll do this week's lesson and start skipping off from there. It works out well since I have a business trip to Edmonton, Alberta in two weeks and it's really hard to go away for three days then come back and do a lesson like you have anything resembling skills.
If I'm lucky, Easter Weekend will be the day I haul the pony-trailer home and initiate Project-Wheels. That weekend I'd like to get my rims re-painted, undercarriage and fenders painted, new brakes mounted and wired and the emergency brake mounted and wired. That leaves me two weekends, one to get my dad's assistance on some welding that's needed and cut new rear boards, and one to get it painted inside. Worst case I have to borrow T's trailer for the Beatrix Clinic and ride Moon over to BHP for the dressage show.
On a completely different topic, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are scheduled to perform a musical ride in Teulon for the Interlake Riding Club! How cool is that?! Especially since I went out and saw their head-quarters last summer in Ottawa, and now to see them live (minus the disapointing fact they aren't trained for years and years and years to that skill level...).
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